- The US-mediated ceasefire appears to be under serious pressure today.
- 200 clashes took place since Saturday: Ukrainian officials.
- Zelenskiy expects the US to guarantee the exchange of 1,000 prisoners.
A US-brokered ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine appeared to be under serious strain in its second day on Sunday, with both sides accusing the other of violating the agreement through weekend attacks.
The three-day pause, announced Friday by President Donald Trump, is part of a broader U.S.-led push for peace that has so far failed to end the more than four-year-old war despite months of shuttle diplomacy.
Three people were killed in Russian drone strikes on areas near the front line, and more than 200 battlefield clashes had taken place since early Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia had refrained from major air and missile strikes but continued attacks along parts of the front where its forces are advancing.
“In other words, the Russian army observes no silence on the front and does not even particularly try to do so,” he said in his evening speech, adding that Ukrainian troops responded and defended their positions.
On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of ignoring the pause, saying it had shot down 57 Ukrainian drones over the past 24 hours and “reacted in kind” on the battlefield.
Zelenskiy said he expected the United States to guarantee a swap of 1,000 prisoners of war from each side that had been part of the deal.
Earlier in the week, Russia and Ukraine had each announced separate ceasefires – starting on Friday and Wednesday respectively – but quickly accused each other of breaking them.
Dead and wounded in Ukraine
One person each in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions was killed in Russian drone strikes, regional governors and police said in separate reports on Sunday.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said eight people, including two children, were injured in drone strikes on the regional capital and nearby settlements.
Seven people, including a child, have also been wounded in Kherson region in drone or artillery strikes since early Saturday, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Sunday.
The state emergency service said Russian forces attacked one of its rescue vehicles in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, injuring a 23-year-old driver.
Kyiv’s air force said Russia had launched 27 long-range drones against Ukraine overnight – a lower number than usual – but that the air force had shot them all down.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Sunday afternoon that nearly 210 clashes had taken place along the sprawling 1,200km front line since early Saturday.
Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.
Stalled, diplomacy
Russian forces are pressing an offensive to capture the remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow has demanded Kiev relinquish before it considers ending its war.
US-backed peace talks between Kiev and Moscow have stalled over the issue, as well as over control of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest.
Russian officials had sent mixed signals on Saturday, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying peace in Ukraine was “a very long way off” but President Vladimir Putin suggesting the war was “coming to an end”.
US envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will visit Moscow “soon enough” to continue talks with Russia, the Interfax news agency reported Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov as saying on Sunday.
On Friday, Kyiv’s top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said he had met Witkoff and Kushner in Miami for talks on humanitarian issues and to “coordinate further steps” toward peace.
Separately, Germany on Sunday rejected a proposal by Putin that former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder could coordinate negotiations with the EU to secure a peace deal in Ukraine.
